Spouse with depression and my step daughters are not helpful. After suggestions on educating them.

[LateInLife]

Hi All

My wife and I are coping but my spouse's Adult daughters are not helpful and are part of the problem and not the solution.

They have grown up with their father who is very passive-aggressive and not compassionate and they are the same. They are saying things like, you should have stayed in hospital or my time out with you is ruined because you are not talkative.

Is there anything I can send to my stepdaughters to give them insight into what depression is and how it affects a person? I will also kindly ask them to show empathy and help. I heard there maybe something like the black dog book or is there anything else I can send them?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

Dave

[missep123]

Hi Dave,

I'm sorry to hear that your spouse's adult daughters have not been supportive or compassionate about her mental health. One thing that I really took from your post is how much you care about your spouse, you must be a great support system for her.

I found this link from the Beyond Blue website which provides some descriptive phrases of depression or how someone feels when they are depressed : https://www.beyondblue.org.au/get-support/have-the-conversation/talk-about-it

I have heard from others that showing videos of people explaining their story of depression is both informative and interesting which may be key to getting people who are not compassionate to understand.

On Youtube if you search 'my story of depression' there are some vulnerable and informative short videos which you might find helpful to show them! Also there are some Ted Talks about mental health which may be useful (however these tend to run for about 20-30 minutes). Here is the link: https://www.ted.com/talks

You can then search 'depression' or 'mental health' and see if you find any talks or videos you connect with that may be helpful to show your stepdaughters.

If you would like we can find some fact sheets or websites that may be useful, please let us know if you need help with this.

I hope that this helps!